When President Donald Trump announced late Saturday that he ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, critics on both the left and the right feared a spiral into a wider war.

Yet just two days later, Trump announced a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran that he claimed would end what he called “the 12-day war” entirely. And though this ceasefire looked quite fragile at first, three days later, it’s still holding.

There’s much we still don’t know about whether Trump’s strikes were successful in their short-term objective of disabling Iran’s nuclear program. And of course, the long-term consequences of the war for Iran and the region are very far from clear.

The past week’s events did, however, clarify some things about Trump and his approach to foreign policy in his second term. Specifically, though Trump attacked Iran’s nuclear program, he quickly pivoted to a ceasefire, suggesting that he’s still wary of the hawks’ transformational “regime change” ambitions. He instead prefers to deal........

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